Letting Go
by Jodeh
Summary: "One of these days, you're going to have to move on and let go." That's what everyone says. But it's much easier said than done. After the war, the Shinobi war had a new sense of peace. For the most part, everyone's happy with the resulting technology boom. But it's much harder to enjoy the spoils of war when you were on the losing side.


_Dear Diary-san the Second,_

 _Hah... It's been a looooong time since I wrote in one of these. It's a shame I stopped, this is actually super relaxing. A nice way to blurt out my feelings without risking someone using that info against me. My first diary never betrayed me, so I hope you never do either~ Actually, speaking of which... I don't think I've written in my old diary since after the war ended._

 _I guess I just didn't have anything to write._

 _Honestly, I really only started doing this because Sanji's worried about me. And fine, he has every to reason to worry. What's_ _ **honestly**_ _stopping me from leveling the Leaf Village?_

 _..._

 _Well, Sanji is. I guess._

 _Anyway, he's all concerned cause we're being forced to relocate to the Leaf village. I don't know all the details of why, but it's mostly financial reasons. Plus, the current Rain village leader is probably tired of me._

 _It's weird. We've got some "deal" with the leaders of the world where they won't kill me and Sanji so long as we're good-which means someone needs to watch us for some reason._

 _I guess they can't have the remains of the Akatsuki roaming freely._

 _Anyways, I'm gonna end this here. I probably won't be writing in this again._

 _-Katana_

* * *

Katana snaps her diary shut and stretches. The rain was pouring down heavily, like always. Their house was mostly barren, save for the small amount of luggage sitting in a pile on the floor.

They weren't able to bring all their things, so the pile consisted mostly consisted of clothing and a few things from their childhood. Katana had a variety of scrolls, and refused to leave behind any of them. She claimed they were full of important weapons and secret jutsus, but Sanji hadn't even seen a fraction of her collection.

He was starting to think she was just a hoarder.

"Katana? Are you ready to go?" Sanji peeks into the living room.

"Nope!"

Sanji sighs. "Yeah, well... Come help pack up the carriage anyways. This is mostly your stuff anyways."

Katana groans, but gets up anyways. She adjusts her eye-patch and snatches her black cloak off a hook on the wall. She slowly puts it on, putting on a show of how much she didn't want to leave.

"Katana, come on." Sanji rolls his eyes, coming in to start gathering a few bags full of scrolls. "There's no changing our minds at this point."

" _Our_ minds? I never wanted to leave in the first place." Katana snaps back, aggressively tying the drawstring on her cloak.

"Well, we can't stay here. I already sold the house."

"Then I'll just kill whoever tries to move in."

"That wouldn't work, and you know it."

It was Katana's turn to sigh. The two siblings hold a stare-off for a few seconds. Katana then snatches up a box and stomps her way out the room.

 _'Jeez... I was hoping she'd take this better...'_ Sanji thinks to himself as he hauls the bags out to the carriage.

Katana quickly brushes past him on her way back in. Sanji would've said something to her, but there usually wasn't any point in trying to talk to her when she was pouting.

They were able to pack up the carriage fairly quickly. They were soaked, but they were used to being in that state. Sanji stands awkwardly to the side, Katana leaning against the carriage and staring him down.

"I just...I just don't _understand_ why it has to be the Leaf Village." Katana grumbles.

"Their leader was the only one willing to watch us."

"Well, why do we need to be watched!? We're as harmless as any other ninja out there!"

"Your emotional outbursts would say otherwise." A different man's voice says.

Katana whips around and glares at none other than Kamiya, the latest leader of the Rain Village.

"I didn't ask for your opinion!" She hisses.

"And I didn't ask for the Kage's to spare your pathetic life."

Katana was about to retort with a nasty insult, but Sanji steps forward and places a firm hand on her shoulder to tell her to stop. She fumes silently to herself, but steps down.

Sanji gives her a wavering look before turning his attention to Kamiya. He clears his throat.

"Did you need anything, Kamiya-sama?" He asks, trying to maintain a respectful tone.

"Kamiya- _sama_?" Katana grumbles under her breath, receiving a subtle jab to the ribs.

"I'm just here to make sure everything's going according to plan." Kamiya replies flatly, pulling out a clipboard with a checklist on it. "Your escorts should be here soon to make sure you two don't go running off. The trip to the Leaf Village should take about 2 days, so long as no one deviates from the plan."

Kamiya eyes each sibling for a second to make sure they were listening.

He continues, "There will be one stop to rest, but otherwise the carriage shouldn't be held up. When you arrive to the Leaf Village, you are to report directly to Lord Hokage to confirm your arrival. From there, he will provide you further directions. Any questions?"

"Who're the people escorting us?" Katana places a hand on her hip.

"Some of our finest Shinobi will be keeping you in check and making sure your trip to Leaf is fast. They're a no-nonsense bunch, so you'd best keep your attitude in check."

"Oooh, so scary."

" _Katana._ " Sanji hisses softly, pinching her arm.

Katana puffs her cheeks out with anger and storms away. Realizing she didn't have anywhere to storm to, she climbed onto the carriage and tucked herself in with the cargo. Sanji continued to discuss "adult matters" with Kamiya, the rain slowly letting up.

Not long after, the four-man squad charged with escorting them made their appearance. They seemed friendly enough, but Katana was none too impressed. In fact, she was pretty sure at least one of these assholes tried to kill her when she was younger... The guy, maybe.

"Jeez, took you guys long enough." Katana popped up from her semi-hidden position. She grins when she sees that she clearly startled the shorter girl.

The leader of the squad was a man Katana somewhat recognized. It was hard to tell-she encountered a lot of threats as a child-but she was pretty sure he was going to kill her if Pein hadn't agreed to meet with him.

"Good afternoon, Kamiya-sama." The man bows politely. "Sorry we're late." He then turns to Sanji. "I don't believe we've met before. I'm Seno Ieyasu, the head of Team 22."

"Nice... to meet you?" Sanji gives him a polite smile and short bow. "Sanji Myojin. And that's my sister, Katana Myojin."

"Yo." Katana gives him a brief wave.

There was a series of introductions, which Katana found more than annoying and unnecessary. The shorter girl she startled was named Iku Orio, the other girl named Saya Masuyama. The oldest boy on the team was named, Takesi Ozaki.

Iku claimed to know Katana, but Katana didn't remember her-nor care to.

"W-We were in the same class at the academy! Takesi-san was there too." Iku explained, somewhat hurt that she was forgotten. "Remember? We always got paired up for training."

"Always?" Katana muses over this for a moment. "Mm... I don't really..."

"We ate lunch together almost every day!"

"Aww, I didn't know you had a friend." Sanji teases.

Katana stares at Iku with confusion, looking to Takesi for assistance.

"You stole her lunch everyday." Takesi deadpanned.

Katana snorts with muffled laughter. "O-Oh yeah! That girl!"

"You're such a bully." Sanji sighs, slicking his hair back. He gives a pitying look to Iku, who looked absolutely heart broken. "I'm _so_ sorry about what Katana did. I bet she feels bad. Right?"

He narrows his eyes at Katana, who in turn rolls her eyes.

"Yeah." She pauses, noting that he clearly wasn't pleased with her. "Tell you what, I'll treat you to dinner tonight. As repayment for those amazing lunches."

"Well!" Seno clasped his hands together loudly. "I think we should get going!"

Not even 30 minutes into the trip, Katana had convinced Sanji to carry her on his back. But it had been a solid few hours, and his back was starting to hurt.

"Katana, you're gonna have to walk." He says just loud enough for her to hear.

"What, am I too fat for you?"

"No." He sighs, pausing for a moment to think of a reply. "You're not a kid anymore. You can't just be carried everywhere."

Katana sighs and lowers her voice. "But if you put me down, they're gonna wanna talk to me."

"You could live to do more socializing."

"Oh, _look who's talking._ You've never even had a girlfriend."

"What're you two whispering about over there?" Seno called over, slowing his pace to match Sanji's.

Katana drops off of Sanji's back without missing a beat. Sanji wobbles a bit as she does that, but manages to keep walking.

"We were discussing where to hide your bodies." She gives him a toothy grin.

Curiously enough, this emits a small laugh from Iku. But just as soon as Katana had said it, Sanji had smacked the back of her head in disapproval.

"Ow! Uncalled for!"

Sanji ignores her. "I was just telling her that she needs to walk. For the rest of the trip."

"What kind of _anarchy_ -"

A sharp stare shuts her right up. Katana sighs and speeds up a bit to keep up with the group. She stops by Seno, looking him up and down. After a few moments of being checked out, Seno decides to say something.

"Do you need something?" He asks.

"I was just wondering... Do you happen to specialize in lightning-style jutsu?"

"Yes... why do you ask?"

Saya cocks her eyebrow, becoming lightweight interested in their conversation. She casually listens in, matching her pace with Katana's.

"I knew I recognized you~" Katana laughs a bit. "You tried to kill me when I was younger."

"What?" Seno frowns.

"Don't act like you don't remember. You were using me to get to my dad, but your plan backfired."

"Eehh? You knew Katana?" Iku gasped. "And you remembered _him_?"

"Hm." Katana shrugged. "He was one of my nicer kidnappers."

"Now that I think about it, I do remember that..." Seno admits, stroking his beard in thought.

"How could you forget? You _totally_ got your ass kicked." Katana titters.

"I did not." Seno grumbles, slightly embarrassed by her shit-talking.

"You did~ I would know, I watched it happen."

"Katana." Sanji gives her a nudge, though couldn't keep away his amused smirk.

"What, I'm just messing with him!"

Their journey continued, Katana trying to convince Sanji to carry her again. She failed as was forced to socialize with the other members of the party-Iku, mainly. She was pretty cross with Katana, as she was under the impression that they were good friends.

They made some good distance, but soon night had come. The group was getting tired, and Sanji had gone back to being concerned about how Katana will react to being in the Leaf Village.

As far as he could remember, she spent a good month there after she ran away. He was sure there would be a good amount of people who would recognize her for one reason or another... As well as a handful of people she would recognize, for better or for worse.

Honestly, he wasn't sure if she was on good terms with anyone in that village anymore. Hopefully she doesn't get too worked up... The last thing they need is for her to have one of her... "outbursts".

* * *

 **uwu What fun this was to write! Think of this kinda like... a part 2 to "When I Was Younger". Starring older Katana (about 14 or 15) and older Sanji (like somewhere in his 20s).**

 **When all your friends and family are dead, but you've gotta push on...**


End file.
